Living In The Shallows (UK Crush #1)

Chapter Thirty-Four

For the next three days I sat in my room knitting, watching Japanese TV, and enjoying the numerous updates from the boys. They missed me, they all said. Why couldn't I come and do the paperwork there? It was all online anyway, right?

They came back that first night exhausted, after I'd gone to bed, so I didn't see them at all. The second night, Ronan, who had the room next to mine, actually got up in the night to use the bathroom, but came through the connecting door and used mine for some reason, then got into bed with me. I shook him, but he slept like the dead, so I just moved over and left him there. In the morning I woke up to find Matty and Gethin standing over us, Ronan breathing quietly beside me, his arm over my waist.

"He just showed up in the middle of the night," I said, shrugging.

"Hey, Ro," Gethin said, shaking him. "Ronan!" With another shake.

"What's going on?" Teddy said, wandering in, rubbing his eyes.

"Ronan came and got in bed with Tink in the middle of the night," Matty said.

"Really?" Teddy asked, coming fully awake.

"Oi, Ronan," said Gethin with more authority.

"Lemme sleep, mate," Ronan groaned. "Alarm hasn't even gone off yet."

"That's because it's in the other room," Matty told him.

Ronan opened his eyes and peered around, jumping when he saw the boys surrounding him. "Hey, what are you all doing in my room?" he asked. Then he saw me next to him, his arm around my waist, and he almost fell out of the bed.

"Tink, what're you doing in me bed?" he asked, his voice nearly rising to a squeak on the last word.

"That's what we're trying to tell you," said Teddy. "You're in her bed, you fuckwit."

"What?" He sat up, pulling the blanket up with him like a modest young woman trying to cover herself. "How'd that happen?"

I sat up, making sure I was properly covered myself. "You came in here in the middle of the night through our door, which I think was open. You used my bathroom, then you came back to my bed, got in on that side, and went to sleep. I tried to wake you up, but you're a hard person to awaken. Eventually, I gave up and went back to sleep."

He looked around. "Oh," he said. "I was fair knackered last night. I'm sorry, Tink." He lowered his voice. "I didn't, uh, try to do anything, did I? In my sleep? To you?"

It took me minute to understand what he was getting at. The idea of Ronan trying to "do something" was so ludicrous it almost wouldn't fit in my brain. "Oh, no, of course not!"

"So okay, then, now that's sorted out, we need to get going, the car's going to be waiting for us in twenty minutes, lads," Teddy said, clapping his hands together. "Let's go, shall we?"

He was the last to leave my room, and all admonitions to hurry aside, he lingered at my bedside, sitting down next to me and taking my hand. "Really missed you the past two days. The days are so long without seeing you at all."

"Yeah, for me too, but I got a lot done, so that was good." I smiled at him. "Maybe if today is as productive as the last two have been, I can come down this afternoon and watch for a bit, okay?"

"Okay." He leaned in and kissed my scar, whispered, "Bye" in my ear, and was gone. The truth was that I was nearly finished with the last scarf, Matty's, only the little fringe on one end left to do, and I was very pleased with the results. The work had turned out well, and they looked classic and masculine. The colors were a perfect match for their eyes.